Book of Longing
Narrated by Leonard Cohen
4/5
()
About this audiobook
“Book of Longing has exceptional range. It is clear yet steamy, cosmic yet private, both playful and profound.”—New York Times
Leonard Cohen wrote the poems in Book of Longing—his first book of poetry in more than twenty years after 1984's Book of Mercy—during his five-year stay at a Zen monastery on Southern California's Mount Baldy, and in Los Angeles, Montreal, and Mumbai. This dazzling collection is enhanced by the author's playful and provocative drawings, which interact in exciting, unexpected ways on the page with poetry that is timeless, meditative, and often darkly humorous.
An international sensation, Book of Longing contains all the elements that have brought Cohen's artistry with language worldwide recognition.
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen was born in Montreal in 1934. Soon after graduating from McGill University, he published his first collection of poems, Let Us Compare Mythologies, in 1956. He would go on to publish a dozen more volumes of poetry, including Book of Longing, and two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers. A hugely influential and critically acclaimed singer and songwriter, Cohen released fourteen studio albums between 1967 and 2016, the last being You Want It Darker, for the title track of which he posthumously won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010, and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Grammys. He won both the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature and the Glenn Gould Prize in 2011, and the first PEN New England Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award in 2012. Cohen died in Los Angeles on November 7, 2016.
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Reviews for Book of Longing
224 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Es muy buena. Me gusta mucho. La uso a diario
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Poems where the author looks back on his past and his current life and is not happy where he is. Some poems rhyme. Some are verse. I found most of these poems and drawings depressing. I did like Alexandra Leaving and Boogie Street.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5To be fair, I'm not the biggest fan of poetry and included in this book is a note from the poet himself that it's not intended to be read cover to cover (but really, how else do you read a book?). There were poems I loved, ones I found eerie, and a few where I think the poet's humor missed its mark. And likely, someone who really loves poetry would get a lot more out of this volume and could tell me out my interpretations are wrong. Overall, this wasn't a bad book, but I think it might be more enjoyable to the reader who likes to skip around in a text.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53 stars for the artwork....not the poetry. I am a big fan of his music, but the books of poetry, not so much. There are just a handful of poems I could appreciate....Guess I'm just not mystical enough.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was the first book of poems I read by Leonard and I found it to be truly inspiring. His writing draws you in and takes you places that you can only dream of being. He has had such an eventful life which makes me want to travel around the world.I highly recommend it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whimsical, sometimes depressing, always delightful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this collection of poetry. It's an eerie-beautiful mix of lamentation (about aging) and pressing on, still loving life.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Musician, poet, and songwriter--Leonard Cohen has produced another collection of poetry that is a pleasure to read--with some simple "in your face" verse that is easy to understand and others that make you dig deeper, surprising you with each successive reading.